Alex Deibold is two weeks from possibly realizing an Olympic dream nearly two decades in the making.

The Boulder resident, who was raised in Vermont, is the leading U.S. man in snowboard cross through the first two qualifying events for the Sochi Olympics with three events to go. Those three World Cup meets will take place over the next two weeks in Andorra and Switzerland. He should know by the end of the day on Jan. 19 whether he's an Olympian.

Deibold, a 27-year-old who first began snowboarding at 4, has been a member of the U.S. men's snowboarding team for a decade. This is his 10th season competing with the team but it's the first time he's felt like he has a legitimate chance at achieving his dream.

He finished third in the snowboardcross World Cup event three weeks ago at Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada, becoming the only U.S. man so far to earn a place on a podium in qualifying. Should he find a way to earn his first career win over the next two weeks, he would guarantee himself a spot on the Olympic team.

Deibold is being cautious at this point about getting his hopes too high. He said there were three men who had a third-place podium finish in the same event in qualifying for the Vancouver Olympics four years ago and only oneof the three made the Olympic team.

"So I got this podium and I'm leading the points right now and I definitely feel great, but I'm not taking anything for granted," he said.

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"I still have to work super hard over these next couple events to do my best and get back on the podium if I want to guarantee myself a ticket to Russia."

While he has never won a World Cup event, he has finished second and third within the past year.

Deibold, the son of a nurse and boat mechanic, began competing in pro events as a 15-year-old, but back then he was mostly involved in slopestyle and halfpipe. His coaches challenged him to broaden his horizons by trying the snowboardcross, which resembles a motocross race, only downhill on snowboards.

The fact that Deibold is in this position is already a major accomplishment in his mind, considering he suffered a separated shoulder last year in Switzerland that required surgery and kept him from competing or training for five months. He did his rehabilitation at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine.

He had one race under his belt this season before finishing third in Canada.

"Honestly, for me to get back on the podium one race after surgery is a dream come true for me," Deibold said. "It was a lot of hard work in rehab in the offseason this year."

It's also a major accomplishment for Deibold to be on the doorstep of the Olympics from a financial perspective. Like many other prospective Olympians, he has worked a series of 'crummy jobs' over the years to help pay the costs of training and competing all over the world.

He was a project manager for construction company for years. He made good money but worked 70 hours a week and didn't have much time to focus on his snowboarding or workout properly. He also was a bellman at hotel and worked at Home Depot. He now spends part of his year working for a Boulder bike shop.

Deibold receives a grant from the U.S. Olympic Committee that he says covers about 25 percent of his total expenses to travel around the world competing. He said he pays the other 75 percent of the costs with money he saves during the summer months, any prize money he wins, credit cards and scholarships from The Level Field Fund.

He said his parents and an aunt and uncle have done all they can to help him over the years.

If Deibold does realize his Olympic dream, it won't be an entirely new experience for him.

He competed in two of the five qualifying events in 2010 but wasn't good enough to make the team.

His results were good enough in those two events to earn a contract to serve as wax technician for his fellow snowboarders who did make the Olympic team in Vancouver. He was able to see the Olympics and experience them to a certain degree through his work, and it fed his desire to make it back as a member of the team in Sochi.

"That was actually like one of the biggest motivating factors in the last couple years that helped me work hard and get some stuff done so I didn't have to be back there waxing snowboards again," Deibold said.

In three days the team was competing in Vancouver, Deibold said he slept a total of seven hours because of all the work he was doing to wax snowboards.

"I was basically there to be their, like, wax bitch for lack of a better term," Deibold said. "I was just there to help them and do whatever they needed. It's tough work.

"It was definitely one of those things where I got up to Vancouver and I got to see behind the curtain and be a part of the Olympic experience, and it was so cool," Deibold said. "I was like, 'I want to be part of this more than anything and I do not want to be doing this crummy work when I could be one of the guys out on this stage in front of all of these people. They got to do so much cool stuff.

Boulder resident Alex Deibold is a member of the U.S. National Snowboarder Cross team and is attempting to qualify for the Sochi Olympics over the next three weeks in World Cup meets in Europe. (Cliff Grassmick/Daily Camera)

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